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After a
celebration meal, again at their favourite raw fish restaurant, the
Prescotts and Suzanna returned to the mansion in the sky. Mr. and
Mrs. Prescott amused themselves with some music. Patricia played the
piano and Ryan watched and listened. Suzanna and Zara went straight
to the pool to watch the geckoes and other little creatures either
lazing about or looking for something to eat. They had the option of
going to a party. Neither Suzanna nor Zara was interested.

“Okay.”

“Okay, what’s okay.”

“We’ll write poems.”

“Poems.”

“Remember the things we do in
English class.”

Suzanna hit Zara in the arm.

“So I guess that is a yes.”

“Sure.”

Zara jumped up out of the pool fast
enough for Suzanna to jump from surprise. She followed Zara back to
her cabin to sit in the swinging chair on the front deck with Zara
and her tablet.

“Once upon a
time there was a little goat.

He liked to eat the grass by the
castle moat.”

“How, sweet.”

“You do the next two.”

Suzanna leaned into Zara so she
could get her arms through Zara’s arms and onto the tablet. Much
more fun than voice recognition. That could be annoying.

“In the glade
beyond were many a sheep.

They were used for wool and for
meat.”

“That’s sad, Suzanna.”

“For the sheep. Not for the
humans.”

“And I suppose it will be mostly
humans and not sheep that read our collection of poems.”

“We’re doing a collection.”

“We already have one. Another one
would be a collection.”

Suzanna bit into Zara’s arm until
Zara flexed her muscles.

“I’ve got a couple Limericks. I
wrote them for school. We could put those in. If you think they are
good enough.”

“Let’s hear them,”

“There was a
young maiden from Madrid.

Who wore a pink
hat on her head.

So pretty was
she.

But for a small
fee.

Most anyone could take her to bed.”

Suzanna laughed.

“I like it. That will be the first
in the limerick chapter. Did you write any more.”

“There once
was a girl named Sally.

Who lived in a
box in the alley.

Her mom she did
kill.

For she left her
the will.

And she moved to a home in the
valley.”

“That one’s great. It’s in. I
think I remember one I wrote.”

“The Red Riding Hood one.”

“You remember that.”

“Suzi, a few people remember
that.”

“Little Red
Riding Hood lived by the lake.

She loved a
little boy by the name of Jake.

He loved a girl
too.

By the name of
Sue.

She was quite pretty but her tits
were fake.”

“Mr. Claymont trying not to
laugh.”

“What’s so funny Mr. Claymont.”

Suzanna finished her typing. Zara
had Suzanna in a hold she could only escape if Zara released her.
Suzanna would not try to escape.

“Shall I try one more.”

“Yes.”

“There was an old maid from down
near the tracks.

“Ah, shit. Hang on. I got it.

“She worked
all day cleaning immigrant’s shacks.

They worked in
the mine.

Most all of the
time.

The whites looked just like the
blacks.

That’s it for me.”

“I wrote a couple the other day.
That other kind of poem.”

“I like this. You reading to me.”

Zara smiled down at Suzanna now with
her head on her lap looking up at Zara.

“He stood
alone on a cliff in the wilderness.

The air was cold
and damp.

There was no
reason to move from the spot.

So he decided to set up camp.

He built a
shelter of wood and mud.

Pine needles he
lay on the floor.

He killed a
moose and removed its skin.

And hung it to make a door.

The meat he
buried in the snow.

He ate some
every day.

He pulled up
roots and ate them too.

Made he a pot from clay.

His days he
filled with making things.

His life was not
so sad.

One day he was
killed by a grizzly bear.

And for that he was glad.”

“You’re so existential.”

Zara laughed.

“I’ve been
searching since the world’s begin.

For the love
that I knew was true.

I knew it from
the ancient sea.

The love for me I’d find in you.

But evil goblins
from the realm of death.

Have poisoned
the sacred dove.

Toxic and bleak
is all the land.

And gone forever the hope of love.

Maggots feast on
the putrid flesh.

That vultures
fear to eat.

No ride toward
the setting sun.

Just withering in the scalding
heat.”

“That had a spiraling down
tendency from heaven to hell.”

“Well noted. How about this one.

“It was a slow
night for Susie Ray.

Her last John
beat her and didn’t pay.

Her snatch was
itching with little bugs.

Salvation was
found with many drugs.

Had a quarter
but no one to call.

She’d lost her kid in a shopping
mall.”

“You paint a vivid picture.”

“Okay, this is the last one for
tonight.”

“Why.”

“That’s all she wrote.”

“Okay, we can write more. Or you
can. I think I’ll stick to biology.”

“Abe loved his
little sister.

He liked to feel
her skin.

Delicious was
her love hole.

He also liked to rim.”

Suzanna laughed so hard she cried.
She speculated the probability of having Zara read her poem at church
in the morning. Today’s scripture read by Zara. How would the
congregation react. Would they need an explanation.

They didn’t go to church in the
morning. They hadn’t planned to. For Zara, once was enough. They
lazed in bed until they sat on the porch and looked at the trees and
the things in the trees. There were two little birds to be heard but
not seen. They could see a gecko. They moved to the hammock and
watched until it rained. Suzanna still found it funny. She was also
still amazed that the little jungle was quite alive inside a
building.

Sunday had the audacity to disappear
quicker than most any other day. Before anyone knew what they wanted
to do, it was Monday morning and many people were back to work or
school.

Sally figured it was time to wrap up
the silly story she had started. It had seemed more exciting at the
beginning. Maybe it was too allegorical and that kind of thing can
get tedious on account it had to obey the poetic justice rule.

“We should be safe here.”

“What is it.”

“It’s a universe. And a nice
one. One that goes on for close to forever.”

“Every experience changes your
mind.”

So in they went. And were instantly
pulverized. But they knew that. They knew it would take several
billion years to get back to consciousness.

Thywill Bedon stood on his balcony
and looked over his subjects. He hadn’t announced the giving of any
proclamations. He hadn’t any to give. After a life of proclamations
he was no longer interested in them. His wife sister stood beside
him.

“Seven hundred wives and three
thousand concubines I have had and it is you that I still love.”

“You never loved me.”

“I love all my people.”

“They have always loathed you.”

“They will remember me fondly.
They will be saying my name for a thousand generations.”

Anditisthus smiled.

“You will be remembered as the
biggest asshole to rule the world.”

Anditisthus pushed her feeble
brother over the balcony.

“Bitch.”

Was the last thing he said before he
landed on his head. It cracked open on the ground and soon he was
dead.

“You hammered your opponent,
Zara.”

“She was rude.”

“Your style is a wonder to watch.
Where did you learn to fight like that.”

“The style is mostly from my dad.
”

“Where did he learn how to fight.”

“His dad.”

“Oh no. Let me guess.”

“Yes. Family tradition. My mother
as well. Not as obsessed but she could cage fight too.”

“But she doesn’t want to.”

“No. She likes to play the piano
when she has time.”

“Did your father ever fight
professionally.”

“No. He’s a lawyer.”

“That’s where I knew the name.”

Zara smiled. She liked Ken. He was
much less of an asshole than he looked.

“So I guess he wouldn’t be
looking for a training job.”

“He doesn’t need a job. But he
might be interested for the fun of it.”

“Hi Suzanna. I’m Ken. Hoping to
be Zara’s manager. Are you a fighter too.”

“Just a fan.”

Ken smiled. Prescott nodded to the
chair beside him to indicate he was welcome to join them.

“Your daughter is an amazing
fighter.”

“She trains hard.”

“Most fighters do, like the one
she just kicked the shit out of. She’s been training hard for over
ten years.”

“That’s about how long Zara has
trained.”

“I got a guy I’d like you to
see. I mean watch him fight. If you can wait around about an hour.
I’d like to know what you think.”

Prescott smiled. He liked Banks. He
smiled until Banks came out with it.

“He’s got great potential. I
think he could be ready for Vegas this summer if he could spend some
time with you. Perhaps we could have Zara ready by then as well.”

“Vegas. You think Zara is that
good.”

“She is. I think she knows it.”

It’s not so easy to remember back
66 million years ago. We have to rely a little on speculation and
fossil records. There is some memory still in our brains but not
really active. The very basics of the framework are still there. The
mammals that were our ancestors were there. They were likely only one
mammal at that time. We were, we as in our ancestors, doing a lot of
hiding from dinosaurs. The big herbivores were only dangerous because
they might inadvertently step on us. The carnivores would actively
hunt us and if they were big, they would chomp us down before we knew
what happened, or they would rip us apart if they were small.

So there was a conference of the
mammal. Not all attended but some of the most brilliant minds did.

“Fellow warm blooded creatures. As
you all know we have little place on this planet as long as the
dinosaurs reign. Our egg eating campaign has helped very little in
controlling their population but it has helped in the evolving of our
brains. There are a few clever species of dinosaur but none with our
potential.”

Joe Mammal waited for the chatter to
die down before he continued.

“What we propose will sound to
some like pure malevolence.”

More chatter. It was no secret that
the warm-blooded masterminds had been working on a secret weapon.

“Mega, giga, terra-death for most
every creature.”

The environmentalists and tolerance
for cold-blooded life forms lobbyists made their objections. And it
was noted that it was sad and no there was no other way. All or
nothing.

“When the planet becomes ours, we
will evolve into thousands of different warm blooded animals. There
will still be fish and insects. And there will be other creatures we
can only imagine.”

At the time no one thought birds
would take over the sky.

The three-day meeting settled it. A
mammal gotta do what a mammal gotta do. So they built a huge
slingshot, put a brontosaurus bone in the slingshot and shot it out
into space directly at the asteroid belt. Just a nudge would do it.
Change the course of one stone that would then bump into another
until after many years, an asteroid left the belt, it’s home, and
journeyed toward the sun.

What a surprise when but a couple
decades or so later a big rock falls out of the sky, smashing through
the atmosphere and ripping into the ocean in what one species later
called the gulf of Mexico.

Words cannot describe the explosion.
It shook the planet. The sky was filled with fire. It rained burning
rock and sulfur and the sun was blotted out of the sky, no not for 3
days, for 3 years.

So food was low for a while.

But it was a great success. The
theropod dinosaur did the wing thing and the mammals evolved in many
ways. And one of those ways was us. We survived yet another mass
extinction.

The question was time flying by. A
lot had happened on the planet in the last 600 million years. If we
can avoid the extinction that we are executing in our recklessness,
the next 600 million years really will be bleeding wild.

We will be the gods.

Zara went home straight after
basketball practice. She knew dinner was waiting for her. Her father
had tracked him down the night before. A priest that had been charge
with molesting 63 choir boys. Prescott had decided against
representing him. He didn’t want that kind of association. The guy
was a real mad man.

Someone else managed to get him off
just as Prescott could have. The lawyer made the boys look like
little confused shit disturbers playing a bad joke on a religious man
of God.

“Hi Mom.”

“Hi Zara. How was your day.”

“Good. I’m playing as good as I
was before the accident.”

“Did you learn anything in
school.”

“I think so. Better ask Suzanna.”

Her mother laughed.

“Is Suzanna coming for a visit.”

Zara sat on the piano bench beside
her mother and looked at the sheet music. Then she pushed a white
key.

“She’s going to come to the
fight tonight. Wants to eat with her family. Then she’ll come back
with us. Are you coming tonight.”

“Of course I am. Now you go play
with the priest and I’ll play a little longer here.”